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Peace Ride dates changed for rider safety

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 5:01 PM

Updated: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 4:31 AM

As the tour director of the Colorado Peace Ride, when I heard about the possibility of the Phish concert and the traffic it would attract to the San Juan Skyway, I approached several of my colleagues who are involved in various aspects of bike tour event directing, as well as the Colorado State Patrol. I also polled our 2009 riders who were familiar with some of the potentially dangerous elements of cycling on this particular route.

The vote came back overwhelmingly in favor of changing the dates for safety reasons, which I promptly proceeded to do. This did affect our rider numbers because we bumped into some conflicts with other event dates  we refunded 40 registration fees and had many others tell us that while they were planning to sign up, they would need to hold off until next year because of the date change.

I fully support Tellurides decision to host Phish because they are an amazing band and attract a fun-loving bunch of people. Initially, I had even entertained the idea of maintaining our dates and thought the two might complement each other well. However, for safety reasons, we chose against this.

Times are tough economically as well, and Phish surely will be an economy booster for all in the area.

My prayer is that our event will one day bring as much benefit to the local economy and the nonprofit organizations we hope to support. I am confident that in the grander scheme of things, all is as it should be. This gives me great peace.